LICENSING LAWS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 11 June 1936, Page 7

LICENSING LAWS

NEED FOR OVERHAUL DISQUIETING REVELATIONS AT AUCKLAND (United Press Association) AUCKLAND, 10th June. Disquieting revelations as to the conditions in certain Auckland hotels were made at the annual meeting of the Auckland Licensing Committee after visiting all of the older hotels. The committee adjourned consideration of the licenses of six houses for reports from owners or architects. “The committee desires to inspect some of the older houses because it feels that these houses should be rebuilt,” said Mr Wyvern Wilson, S.M., who presided. “Since these houses were built Auckland has progressed enormously. It is true several large hotels have been built, but the committee is informed that the accommodation is taxed and at some seasons inadequate. It is in the interests of the public that these should be rebuilt. “The committee has asked me to say that it considers the time is long overdue for a comprehensive re-enact-ment of the licensing laws,” continued Mr Wilson. “They are in many re.spects archaic, having come into being in the seventies and early eighties, when public requirements were quite different.” A state of disrepair amounting to dilapidation was Mr Wilson’s description of the Queen’s Ferry Hotel. “We want the owner to put some better proposition before us,” he said. The police report on the Imperial Hotel stated that the house showed signs of age and was infested with rats. The lavatory had been leaking into the cellar where beer was stored. This defect had fortunately been remedied. The Suffolk Hotel is another very ancient building, but although d<r«y and not kept clean it ( is in a fair slate of repair considering its ace. However, there is no dining-room for the public and people have to have t)’ r>, r meals in the kitchen. The application was adjourned 1 Comment, was also made regarding -several other hotelo-